SPROGLIG RELATIVISME: Hvordan og hvornår kommer den til udtryk i ontogenesen?

Resumé

The paper is a theoretical and empirical contribution to the debate regarding the principle

of language relativity in relation to ontogenesis. In the first part of the paper it is argued

that the division between universal knowledge and culture-specific knowledge which is

present in the new discipline of cognitive science is based on a false dichotomy. This

has led to the ignorance of the complementary contributions that anthropology and

developmental psychology may offer for the investigation of different human knowledge

systems. The status quo regarding recent empirical evidence that demonstrates how

language effects cognition is then presented and discussed in terms of ecological validity.

The second part of the paper presents results from a recent cross-cultural and crosslinguistic

study that demonstrates the early effect of language on cognition. The study

investigates Danish (Scandinavian) and Zapotec (Mexican indigenous) infants’ spatial

cognition with respect to whether this is influenced by the specific linguistic structure of

each of the two languages. The results show that the two groups of children performed

in different, language-specific ways to the presented spatial task. Danish children

expressed a preference for imitating the behaviour of placing one object inside a another

object, whereas the Zapotec children were equally apt to place the respective objects in

an occlusive relationship. The results are discussed with regard to whether they give

support to the Whorfian hypothesis or to the notion of cultural relativity, as reflected in

the work of Vygotsky.